Living Music
by LainaFantasy
Summary: Completely invisible to humans, music spirits called Themes live in the Underground. Each can Bond with a monster or a place, creating a connection deeper than the SOUL through which they can share power and magic. Together, a Theme and its Bonded can take on the world… or protect it against a certain human. (AU)
1. Megalovania

**A/N: I've edited this chapter slightly to fit in with some world-building. If you've read it before, however, you don't need to reread it (unless you want to, of course).**

 **This idea for the** **Undertale songs to be living, sentient beings** **randomly came to me and wouldn't go away, so I decided to write it as a silly little thing... My hand slipped. Enjoy some feels instead.  
** **As for a SPOILER WARNING, there are major spoilers for the genocide route in this chapter, and future chapters will contain spoilers for the entire game.  
Also, I just want to say right now that Sans' speech will have normal capitalization. Sorry, it's just very highly annoying for me to try to write a story with any length to it with Sans' all-lowercase style. I managed for one of my other Undertale stories, but for this one, I decided to just use normal capitalization.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Megalovania**

It's not very well-known that within the Underground, spirits known as Themes live. Each Theme binds itself to a person or a place to gain power, and, in return, it lends its power to the person or protection to the place. Themes don't provide much direct power on their own, but they can take the power provided to them from the person or place, their Bonded, and increase it. On top of this, each Theme produces a unique song for its person or place that it binds itself to, and some of the more powerful Themes have two or three songs as part of their power. Once a Theme binds itself to a person or place, the link is permanent, and if that person dies or the place is destroyed, the Theme's power will greatly decrease, or it may die altogether. To avoid this, some Themes bind themselves to the world at large, or to a situation, but this is rare because a Theme that does this gets used very often without gaining much power in return, and it can be rather tiring.

Among the Themes was one particularly bold and impressive spirit named Megalovania. Megalovania, who usually just went by Mega for short, had six melodies, which was an impressively high number, though not as much as what some other Themes had. One was a fun song that Mega could display without even trying. It didn't require any power transfer, and Mega figured that it would serve whoever Mega eventually bonded to well. Another was a more calm and mysterious melody that also really didn't require any power, though it could channel a little bit of non-combative magic. A third was a more gentle and calm, yet upbeat melody that was actually a variation on the first. The fourth was also a variation on the first... sort of. It was a combative melody, and it channeled about the same amount of magic energy as most Themes' combative melodies. The fifth was a very slow, calm, and almost emotional song. All of these, however, paled in comparison to the last one, the sixth melody. It was a song full of power, one that could take and channel extremely high levels of magic easily. It was the most powerful melody in terms of raw magic channeling capabilities of any Theme. Megalovania knew that this melody, its "title melody," if you would, was very magnificent and powerful, so it hesitated to bind itself to anyone or any place. It decided that it didn't want to be bound to a place, but that left it with finding a worthy person.

The problem was that Mega was the type of Theme that knew that it was incredible, and it also knew just how exhausting that type of power was. If it was going to display its music and power, it was going to do it right, and if it was going to do it right, it was certainly _not_ going to do it often. Mega wanted someone who had a lot of power so that whoever it was could fuel Mega, but that person needed to not get into battles very often. Besides, Mega had an ego. It only wanted to be used in battle if that battle was righteous.

Other Themes had discussed the matter of a young skeleton named Sans. The guy had a _lot_ of raw power, and he would be any Theme's dream to bond with except for one thing: he never fought. The guy laughed and joked his way out of everything. Sure, he practiced like crazy, but Themes bound to people only gained power from those people's actual fights, not practices. Of course, some Themes had melodies that didn't require a power transfer, such as Mega's first, fun melody, but Theme gained little to no benefit from using these. Of course, a Theme could practice its music and practice using power with its Bonded at any time, but it still wouldn't get any real power or any benefits from mere practices.

Bonetrousle, another Theme, had noticed Sans, but decided to favor his younger brother, Papyrus. A while after Bonetrousle and Papyrus had bonded, Bonetrousle decided to talk to Megalovania, since the two Themes were friends. After the usual pleasantries, Bonetrousle said, "Mega, you've heard about this Sans guy, right?"

"Well, of course I've heard about him. Why do you ask?"

"You know how everyone puts him down because the guy won't fight, right? But today, someone decided to mess with my Bonded, Papyrus, and I swear that guy Sans looked so very threatening. He started to initiate a fight, which is enough to trigger a Theme, you know, and one of his eyes was glowing blue. The person who was messing with Papyrus just left."

"What's your point, exactly?"

"Sans isn't unwilling to fight, like most Themes think he is. He's just not going to fight unless he has a very good reason to."

Megalovania thought about this long and hard. Sans sounded like the perfect Bonded to Mega, actually. After all, it did want someone who wouldn't fight much, and who would only fight for a very good reason. "You're saying that you think that Sans would be a good candidate for being my Bonded?" Mega clarified.

Bonetrousle nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying. Besides, we're friends, right? We would get to see each other all the time!"

Mega laughed a little. "I _guess_ we're good enough friends that I _suppose_ that I could put up with constantly being near you…" it said teasingly.

"Come on! I have a less combative melody, and you have a couple non-combative melodies, and you _know_ that our least powerful ones go well together! We could use our relaxed melodies together all the time!"

Laughing more, Mega said, "They really don't go together. You're just desperate to be around me."

"I am not desperate! I don't even really want you around. I just thought that Sans sounded like a good fit for you," Bonetrousle said, trying and failing to look aloof.

"Uh huh…" Mega said disbelievingly. It relented, however, and it smiled before adding, "I'll look into the guy."

"You should! Go check him out and then come talk to me!" Bonetrousle exclaimed.

Megalovania invisibly made its way over to Snowdin, where the skeleton brothers had recently moved to. It decided to watch Sans for a while… and it found itself bored but intrigued. Sure, Sans didn't _do_ anything, but he was always watching. The guy was more calculating than anyone gave him credit for.

Uncertain, Mega watched Sans for three whole days as Sans went about his normal business: looking out for his brother, napping, going to Grillby's, checking up on his brother, fiddling with the machine kept in the back room of his house, making notes about timelines, practicing his magic, and keeping an eye on his brother. All the while, Sans seemed easygoing and relaxed, but invisible Megalovania noticed Sans' keen stare as he carefully watched out for any potential dangers.

Finally, on the fourth day of watching Sans, he saw something interesting. Sans and Papyrus were going out on a picnic because Papyrus had insisted that they do so. Sans was reluctant, but he didn't want to say no to his brother. As the two sat and ate, another monster came up to them.

"So, you're the new freaks in town, huh?" the monster said with a sneer.

"Yup," Sans replied, "spooky, freaky skeletons right here."

"Hah, you two should get out of town! Snowdin isn't meant for creepy weirdos like you!" The monster tried to shove Sans, but Sans dodged with unnatural speed. The other monster laughed. "What, you can't take a hit?"

Papyrus was getting mad, and Megalovania saw Bonetrousle become visible as Papyrus prepped to fight. "LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE! HE DOESN'T HAVE MUCH HP, ALRIGHT? YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE HIM A HARD TIME ABOUT IT!"

"So he's a wimp, huh?"

"What can I say? With 1 HP, I guess I'm more fragile than ivory. You'd think I'd be _bone-hard_ , but nope. It's a real irony," Sans commented with a shrug.

The other monster scoffed at Sans' puns. "So if you two are that weak, you should get out of town before someone gets the idea to kill you, don't you think?" He accentuated this with a hard shove at Papyrus, which knocked 1 HP off of Papyrus' overall health.

"Now, who would want to do that?" Sans asked. His tone was perfectly normal, but his white pupils vanished, leaving his eyes black and menacing.

"I'm not scared of you! You're a weakling!" the other monster spat.

The other monster's HP dropped very quickly as Sans used blue magic to smash him into the ground and summoned bone attacks to cut his HP down further. "I'm sorry, what did you say?" Sans asked.

The other monster didn't reply as he charged at Sans, but Sans sidestepped with ease, allowing the monster to run right past him. "UGH, just stand there and take it!" the other monster growled.

"Eh, nope. Sorry, I'm not suicidal," Sans said, summoning more attacks that now involved Gaster Blasters. The other monster's HP dropped below half.

Megalovania noticed the Snowdin Theme supporting Sans with its out-of-borders melody, which it called "Snowy" and saw how much strength it was getting from Sans' righteous defense of his brother.

In that moment, Megalovania decided to bond with Sans.

It was a very sudden thing. Right after Sans dodged another one of the other monster's attacks, Megalovania appeared to him. "I've taken a liking to you," it said quickly. "I've been watching you, and you don't fight unless you have a darn good reason. You're exactly what I want. Do you want to bond with me?"

Sans didn't immediately reply as he dodged again. He knew that being chosen by a Theme was a great honor, however, so he didn't take long to think about it. "Sure, I'll do it," he said, keeping his eye on his enemy even as he held his hand out to Megalovania.

The Theme took the skeleton's hand, sealing the bond. It then repositioned itself right behind Sans and synched itself up with the skeleton's soul. As it felt Sans' power rushing through it, it began to display its unique music. Sans froze for a second, looking behind him at the Theme in disbelief as it shrugged modestly. "What can I say? I am very great, and I required someone just as great to be my Bonded."

Sans shook his head in disbelief before he turned forward to face the now very intimidated foe. "Well, it seems that I just got a Theme, and I'd really love to try it out. Do you want be my practice dummy?" he asked innocently, but a flash of blue in his eye assured the other monster that this 'practice' would not be innocent.

The other monster, however, had taken the chance while Sans was talking to Mega to heal, so his health was full, temporarily assuaging any fears of Sans and of the powers of Themes. The monster yelled in fury and exclaimed, "So what if you got a Theme?! I don't care! I want you _gone_! You're- _you're as bad as that creepy Gaster guy!_ "

All humor drained from Sans' face. "What did you say, _buddy_?"

The poor monster never had a chance to reply as the newly strengthened Sans came at him full-force, not relenting as he displayed attack after attack after attack.

Megalovania loved every second of it. " _I will never regret choosing this guy. Even if this is the only time we ever fight, this rush of power and righteous anger is worth it!_ "

It was over all too soon as the other monster's HP dropped to 1 and Sans stopped. "Now then, are we done here?" he asked.

"Y… Y… You're a FREAK, ya hear me?! You'll NEVER be accepted ANYWHERE in the Underground! I don't care if you have a Theme, you'll never survive with 1 HP! That Theme is the stupidest Theme ever to bind itself to such a weak monster! You'll die, and you'll either kill that Theme or severely weaken it, and a Theme that great shouldn't be wasted on you!"

Sans waited for the other monster to finish his rant. "Are we done here?" he repeated calmly.

Sputtering, the other monster hobbled away.

"That was incredible," Megalovania panted a little as it looked down at Sans from where it was floating. "You're incredible."

"I hate to break it to you, but I don't normally do that," Sans said.

"I know that. That's why I chose you. I'm not a junkie for fights like some other Themes. I only want to be called upon when it's necessary, and you seem like just the right guy for that. Besides, I have six melodies, and I think that the most relaxed one fits you." Mega started showing off its fun, easy-going melody.

Sans smiled at the Theme as he nodded in time to the fun beat of Mega's tune. "That's great," he said. "What's your name, then?"

"I'm Megalovania, but you can call me Mega. Your brother's theme, Bonetrousle, is a friend of mine."

"Nice to meet you, Mega. It'll be great big fun to work with you. We'll have a mega-good time."

Megalovania laughed, and both the skeleton and the Theme knew that they had found a kindred spirit.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Mega. I know you don't want to fight, but…"

"Sans, I never said that I didn't want to fight. I'm a Theme for crying out loud. I live off of fights. I only said that I didn't want to fight for no reason. This counts as a good reason."

"Alright then… _I_ don't want to fight."

"Try to convince the kiddo to RESET, then, but you and I both know that something has to be done to stop that human."

Sans bowed his head. "I know. This kid though… this human has a lot of LV by now, so this battle just might take me down. I'll do my best, but…"

"I'm here with you, Sans. Either we'll save the world together by sending this creature back to hell where it belongs, or we'll die trying."

"Thanks for everything, Mega."

"I wouldn't change it if I could."

They both knew how much that meant to Sans. Megalovania couldn't retain memory after the RESETs, but it knew about Sans' memories. It knew that Sans had watched various versions of the world, though this was the first time that the human had decided to literally slaughter everything. Sans had mostly just let things run their course since it would all RESET anyway, but he'd calculated that if the kid finished what had been started this time around, there might not be a RESET. So, reluctantly, both Mega and Sans decided to fight.

The kid appeared at the end of a corridor. The time had come. Megalovania looked out the widows at the barrier-tinted light with tears in its eyes. This was the end of it all, one way or another. Sans' resolve, however, didn't waver. "It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing. Flowers are blooming. On days like these, kids like you…" Megalovania felt the rush of power as the battle started and Sans declared, "…SHOULD BE BURNING IN HELL."

The attacks started full force, and Megalovania started up. It had never felt more alive, and it knew that it had never performed better. It focused all of its energy, including the energy that it was receiving from the fight, into strengthening Sans and distracting the human. The battle was fierce and draining, but Mega and Sans couldn't give up.

Megalovania suddenly froze as Sans stopped the fight, trying to spare the kid. The human didn't even pause before striking at Sans again, and Mega struck back into action. Even giving his all, he could tell that Sans' energy was being seriously depleted by all of the attacks. Sans had joked at the beginning of the fight about not knowing why people didn't start with their strongest attack, but Mega and Sans both knew well why that was. The strongest attacks of those with Themes were usually saved for the end when the Theme had built up enough energy to support the attack and get its Bonded through the intense struggle of using more magic than what the monster was used to. Sans, however, completely ignored this as he started out too strong, which forced him to back off a little to save his magic as Mega built up power.

Sans and Mega were linked closely enough to know that Sans' overall magic reserves were running low, and while a Theme could make a little magic go a long way, it couldn't replenish magic that simply wasn't there anymore. They also both knew that Mega was pretty well ready to initiate Sans' most powerful attacks and to pull him through it. "Well, here goes nothing…" Sans told the kid. "Are you ready? Survive THIS, and I'll show you my _special attack_!"

Megalovania focused all of its energy into Sans as he focused all of his magic into the attacks at hand. There was no special attack coming; this was the moment of truth. Either they would kill the kid now, or they would have to hope that Sans' plan B of boring the kid to death would work. Honestly, neither really thought that it would, but it was still worth trying if this one last display of their combined power didn't work. Mega focused harder than it ever had in its life. It felt victorious as their combined power threw attack after attack at the abomination in front of them. They were doing so well! And yet…

Sans' magic ran out. Megalovania felt beyond crushed as Sans was forced to resort to the desperate 'special attack' of doing nothing. It knew it had failed, and Sans' plan B probably wouldn't work. Mega rested its head in its hand as their fate was left to Sans alone. It didn't escape its notice that Sans knew the fight's barrier's weak spot and was using the last of his magic to keep the kid's SOUL away from that weak point. Mega rested a hand on Sans' shoulder to support him as he stayed awake despite his exhaustion to keep teleporting the kid's SOUL. Eventually, however, the kid gave up, and Sans and Mega were both so tired…

SLASH! The kid struck at Sans. Thankfully, Sans had had the presence of mind to still be able to dodge, but he wasn't expecting the second slash.

"SANS, NO!" Mega yelled. "Sans, I'm so, so sorry! If I was better at my job…"

"Mega," Sans whispered quietly, "you're perfect. I couldn't have asked for a better partner. I wouldn't change being with you even if I could." Sans then looked over at the kid, defeated. "So… guess that's it, huh? Just… don't say I didn't warn you." Sans then stood up wearily and started walking off. "Welp, I'm going to Grillby's," he announced.

"I'm coming with you," Megalovania said with a sad smile as it felt its life force draining. "We'll see Bonetrousle and Papyrus there, right? I think old Bone will want some fries. What about Pap?"

"Let me ask," Sans said, returning his Theme's sad smile. More loudly, he asked, "Papyrus, do you want anything?"

Megalovania could only watch as Sans dissolved into ash. Mega shed a few tears as it felt its Bonded slip away, taking its life-force with him. "I'm right behind you," it muttered as it, too, dissolved into nothing.

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 **A/N: Did you like the feels?  
Just in case it wasn't clear to everyone, the six songs that Megalovania has are sans., Premonition, It's Raining Somewhere Else, Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans, The Choice, and, of course, Megalovania. Bonetrousle's alternate melody is Nyeh Heh Heh!, and the Snowdin Theme's song that was playing at the beginning of Sans' first fight was Snowy.  
** **Please let me know what you think! I am open to suggestions for future songs. Chapter 2 is going to be Spear of Justice and the other songs having to do with Undyne, but if you have suggestions for songs beyond that, I would love to hear them! It doesn't matter where in the timeline they would have to fall, as my next chapter will take place chronologically before this one.  
** **Just as a note, I am making no promises for my posting schedule. I could take up to a couple months per chapter due to my busy life and the fact that I'm also working on other stories.**


	2. Spear of Justice

**Author's Note: I've edited this chapter slightly to fit in with some world-building and to correct a small writing error I found. You don't need to reread it, though, if you've already read it (unless you want to).**

 **Ah, hello. I'm glad that I made no promises in the last chapter for when this one would arrive, because I got serious writer's block in the middle of this chapter that lasted a couple weeks. I finally got past that part and finished it, though, so I hope you enjoy! More notes are at the end, and I have a lot to say there, so I would appreciate it if you read those. Thank you!**

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 **Chapter 2: Spear of Justice**

Some Themes are just more powerful than others. Some Themes are unique. Spear of Justice was almost unique in the sense that even its lesser melodies still took and gave more power than most Themes' main melodies.

Extraordinary Themes usually end up with extraordinary egos, and Spear of Justice was no different. It knew that it was unique and powerful, and it wanted no one but the best for its Bonded. (It was certainly _not_ going to waste its power on a place.) It wanted a fighter, someone who would stand up for justice and righteousness. It wanted someone who was unafraid to fight for what was right.

The problem was that it just couldn't find anyone that it liked. Sure, there were great fighters, but it seemed that the best fighters were reluctant to fight and that the monsters who were eager to fight really weren't great fighters.

Spear of Justice did notice a feisty youngster named Undyne, who spent her days energetically practicing to fight, and she often challenged people much more experienced than her to duels. She was passionate, dedicated, and strong, and Spear of Justice rather admired her. She was a bit young for a Bonded, though, so it decided to keep looking.

Some time went by, and Spear of Justice still didn't find a good candidate for its Bonded. It kept finding itself looking at Undyne. It watched her as she challenged the king, and it continued to watch as a single challenge turned into a long-lasting tutoring and mentoring relationship. It looked on as Undyne decided that she would one day become the captain of the Royal Guard, and it studied her as she learned how to fight and how to protect her people. Although she was still young and there was no guarantee that she would achieve her goals, it found itself feeling surer by the day that she was meant to be its Bonded. Besides, it had to admit that Undyne would almost certainly achieve her goals. She was the kind of person who would never let anything get in her way.

She was still young, though, and last time a Theme had Bonded with a young child… well, it wasn't the child's fault or the Theme's fault; it was the humans' fault, but still… it didn't end well. So, Spear of Justice decided to wait.

Waiting was a difficult process, even for an ageless spirit such as a Theme. The pull of a Theme to its Bonded is impossible to resist once the connection is made, and even before the connection is established, if a Theme has decided who its Bonded will be, the draw will begin to exist. Thus, Spear of Justice kept finding itself basically stalking Undyne as it invisibly watched her little victories.

There was a weaker Theme known as Here I Am. This theme prided itself on intelligence and commitment instead of strength, and it had decided to seek out a Bonded who would be willing to push the boundaries of the connection between Theme and Bonded-not through strength, but through science. It was still looking for its perfect Bonded, but in the meantime, it had often talked to Spear of Justice. The two were opposite in many ways, and yet similar in others, which made conversations between them very interesting. During one such conversation, Here I Am asked, "Why haven't you Bonded with Undyne yet? It's apparent that you're meant to hers."

Spear of Justice shook its head and replied, "She's still too young."

"I know that you don't use your brain much, but you're not stupid, and you know as well as I do that there is no magic age at which it is suddenly okay to Bond. Asriel's Theme Bonded with him when he was just a little child."

"Everyone knows how that turned out," Spear of Justice pointed out with a flat tone of voice.

"That's true, but it also wasn't the fault of his Theme or even him, really. Of course, it wasn't a smart idea for him to leave the Underground, but he was not the one responsible for his demise. It was the humans' fault for killing him."

"Still, I don't want to meet that fate. Children are far too unpredictable to Bond with."

"Undyne is already older than Asriel was, and she is far more willing to fight. You won't be wasting your connection by Bonding with her, that's for sure."

"I know that I wouldn't waste my connection. Still…"

Here I Am waited a moment before asking, "Still what? You should just go Bond with her already."

Spear of Justice couldn't hold back a little snicker of laughter. "Aren't you supposed to be the scientific, analytical one?" it asked jokingly.

"Well then, in my scientific opinion, you should just Bond with her already," Here I Am replied challengingly.

Spear of Justice huffed a little, looking at Here I Am in a resigned manner. "Alright, I'll go talk to her," it finally consented. "But I'm not promising that I'll Bond with her yet."

The other Theme looked at it for a moment before saying, "Alright, I'll accept that for now… but I'll be watching you."

Spear of Justice laughed before saying, "Alright, see you later, dork."

"You too," Here I Am replied, unfazed by the lighthearted insult.

Spear of Justice immediately made good on its promise by teleporting to Undyne's location. It floated near her invisibly for a moment before making itself visible. Undyne was practicing summoning magic spear attacks, so she didn't notice the Theme right away. When she paused to take a short break, however, she looked to see the Theme, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Hello," Undyne said after a brief moment, unsure how to address a Theme, really.

"Hello Undyne," the Theme replied. "I am Spear of Justice."

Undyne smiled with amusement. "That's an awesome name," she commented.

"Why, thank you. I've been watching you for a little while now, and you seem to be a very strong and dedicated person."

Undyne shrugged modestly, but it was obvious from her expression that she enjoyed the praise. "I just do what I do best," she said.

"You certainly do," Spear of Justice said softly, speaking more to itself than to her. It looked at her critically for a moment.

Undyne was understandably uncomfortable under Spear of Justice's critical stare, but she did her best not to let it show. After a moment, she said, "Well, if you don't mind me asking… _why_ are you here?"

Spear of Justice averted its gaze for a moment before finally admitting, "I'm considering you for my Bonded."

A sharp intake of breath was heard from Undyne, and she looked at the Theme with hope and amazement in her eyes. "Really? I… I would be honored!" Then she reeled herself back in, remembering that tiny detail of 'considering,' and amended her statement. "That is, of course, if you actually chose me. I would be quite honored in that scenario."

Spear of Justice laughed a little. "Well, I certainly think that you would be a good match for me," it admitted. "The only problem is that you are still quite young."

Undyne looked conflicted between understanding and wanting to protest. "I'm not too young," she said calmly. "I can handle it! I'm still learning, but I'm already strong! Plus, we can learn to work together, right?"

Spear of Justice paused. It hovered, undecided, for a little while. Just as it was about to tell Undyne that it was leaving for the time being, Here I Am appeared. "Don't you dare blip away, Spear," Here I Am said.

"Here…" Spear of Justice huffed in exasperation. "Undyne is just too young. I'll come back for her when she's older."

"She is not too young!" Here I Am said. "You're making excuses because of your pride. She's only _too young_ for you to know for sure that she's _worthy_ of you or whatever other complex you've built up in your mind. She is not too young to Bond with, and you're ignoring this fact because of your pride."

"Look, geniuses," Undyne said.

"Genii" Here I Am corrected, as it was always the smart, intellectual one (even if a bit temperamental).

Undyne shot Here I Am a withering look. " _Genii_ , I get a say, right? And I say that if you're not sure about me, let me prove myself! I'm more than good enough for the best of the best of Themes! So, give me a chance to prove it! What do you want me to do?"

Spear of Justice looked at her for a moment before it began to snicker and then to laugh outright. "Fiery, aren't you? You're perfect."

Undyne laughed right along, "FUHUHU YOU BET I AM!" she yelled.

"Alright, I like your moxie, kid. Go ahead; prove yourself."

Undyne crossed her arms. "Gladly, but we can't directly fight, so how do you want me to prove myself? I'm assuming that you've already watched my sparring sessions with Asgore."

"That's true," Spear of Justice admitted. "But those are all simply training sessions. I want to see you really try."

"Alright then," Undyne said with a flash of pride and resolve in her eyes. "Next time I have a training session with him, I'll ask him for a real sparring match."

Spear of Justice nodded in approval. "I look forward it," it said before disappearing.

Here I Am sighed lightly before looking down at Undyne. "I'd like to apologize for my friend's behavior," it said. "Spear of Justice is… unique."

Undyne laughed. "I love it already," she said. "I really hope it chooses me as its Bonded."

"It already loves you," Here I Am said. "It just doesn't want to admit it. You'll be its Bonded for sure; it's only a matter of time."

She looked up at it with a sort of reserved hope. "Do you really think so?"

It laughed and said, "I know Spear better than anyone. It really likes you, kid. Don't worry about anything."

Undyne smiled. "Thanks."

"Not a problem," the Theme replied. "I'll see you later." Then, it vanished, leaving a hopeful Undyne behind.

The next day, Undyne and Asgore prepared to spar. The younger monster practically buzzed with nervous excitement while Asgore quietly got himself ready. It was going to be a simple match, with each time one caused damage to the other counting as a point, after which the injured one would heal before they continued, and the first one to three points would win. Neither really wanted to hurt the other, so this method presented the best solution in order that they could have a real sparring match without any risk of death. Once they were ready, they started sparring full out. Undyne thrusted spears at Asgore while he sent fireballs at her. They were both incredibly adept at using their own attacks to block the attacks of the other.

Spear of Justice came to the sparring match and watched as they sent attacks back and forth at a steadily increasing pace. Suddenly, it felt a poke from behind and whirled around to see what other Theme was there (since only a Theme's own Bonded or another Theme can physically touch a Theme).

Here I Am smirked at Spear of Justice. "Well, you got them to spar. Are you impressed yet?"

Spear of Justice fought to keep its face neutral. It was easy to hide expressions from monsters, since Themes were translucent and appeared somewhat 'blurry' to monsters, but Themes were good at reading other Themes' expressions, and Here I Am knew Spear of Justice fairly well. Still, the latter made a valiant effort to keep its face clear as it said, "The match is somewhat entertaining."

Here I Am scoffed. "Spear, I know you too well. You love this."

"Well, I will admit that I am enjoying watching the match, but I'm not sure if I am _that_ impressed with Undyne's performance," Spear of Justice countered, but Here I Am started laughing even before it finished. "Here, be serious! I'm not lying to you."

"If you're not lying to me, you're lying to yourself," Here I Am said with a disbelieving expression.

Spear of Justice prepared a retort, but it stopped as it saw a spear hit Asgore. Undyne jumped up in the air in excitement, shouting, "Yes!" in victory.

Asgore smiled as he ate a prepared sandwich to heal himself. "Good job, my pupil. You have done very well," he said.

As Undyne and Asgore started back up, Bergentrückung, Asgore's Theme, poked its head into the room. "How is the match going?" it asked the other two Themes present.

"Fairly well," Spear of Justice said, feigning indifference.

"It's going very well for Undyne so far. She's scored one point, and Asgore hasn't yet," Here I Am elaborated.

"Ah, that does sound quite nice," Bergentrückung said with a smile. "I shall have to see the results later."

"Berg, you aren't staying to watch?" Spear of Justice asked.

"No, I cannot. It would be unfair if I helped Asgore, and I do not want there to be any reason for him to be accused of cheating."

"Undyne wouldn't do that," Spear of Justice countered before it realized that it had just stood up for Undyne. It pointedly ignored the triumphant look that Here I Am gave it.

"She most likely would not," Bergentrückung conceded. "However, she is very prideful, and she may be tempted to make unfair accusations if she loses. She is much like _certain powerful Themes_ in that regard."

Spear of Justice's face flushed a more opaque white as it recalled a certain instance when facing off against Megalovania. Sure, the circumstances were very different, but that didn't change the fact that Spear of Justice had been a rather sore loser, especially since the point of that particular challenge was the amount of pure magic that could be channeled, and Megalovania had won on that note (though even it admitted that Spear of Justice handled magic more efficiently and could last longer). "That-that's beside the point," Spear of Justice said, trying to brush off the reminder. Here I Am snickered a little at that comment, but it feigned an innocent expression when Spear of Justice looked over at it.

"In any case, you must admit that they are both doing rather nicely," Bergentrückung said, redirecting the focus of the conversation to the sparring match. Undyne looked slightly miffed as she put down the sandwich that she had been eating and prepared her spears. The score was 1-1.

The 'battle' started back up full force. The three Themes in the room watched for a while before Bergentrückung said, "I really should be off for the time being. I will see how the match went later. In the meantime, I should use this time while Asgore is busy to talk to Heartache again."

Spear of Justice nodded understandingly. When monsters with Themes got married, their Themes typically formed a close bond (though platonic, since Themes couldn't actually experience romantic or sexual attraction). Although Asgore and Toriel had gone their separate ways quite some time ago, Bergentrückung and Heartache still felt close, despite the fact that they felt uncomfortably like they were betraying their Bonded monsters by meeting. They weren't specifically betraying Toriel and Asgore, but it was… complex.

Here I Am understood, too, and it said, "Alright, hurry off, then. They'll be done with the match pretty soon."

"Thank you. I will see you both later," Bergentrückung said before phasing away into the Themes' home pocket dimension.

Spear of Justice turned its attention back to the battle, and it felt the overwhelming desire to use its melodies as it watched the resolve, tenacity, and focus of Undyne. As it watched her fight, it knew that it really could no longer deny that it was going to be her Theme. It just still wasn't sure if she was ready yet, though it felt that uncertainty slip away as it watched her attack and dodge with the ease of practice. Some of the uncertainty returned as Undyne took another hit, but Spear of Justice was very impressed by how she jumped back into the fight with more power than before, resolute as she was to win this match. She sent a barrage of spears at Asgore, and while he blocked most of them, one managed to slip past his guard and graze his shoulder. It only took 1HP, but it counted as a hit. Asgore smiled as he took a bite of his sandwich to heal him.

The score was now 2-2, and despite the fact that this was merely a sparring match, Spear of Justice could tell that Undyne was tense. She was so close to winning, and, as the match started back up again, she started to have trouble blocking as the stress got to her. Still, she was set on winning this match, and she wouldn't let anything stop her. She summoned spear after spear, and though she didn't seem to be making any progress, she was also pretty sure that she could outlast Asgore if she needed to.

The battle went on for quite a while. While Asgore didn't seem to be as invested in the battle as Undyne was, he also wasn't going easy on her.

As the battle continued, both Undyne and Asgore started to tire. The battle's pace slowed, with both monsters trying to conserve energy. Spear of Justice began to wonder how long the fight would drag on, and it almost missed the one stray spear that made it past Asgore's guard, ending the match.

Undyne was panting a little as she looked over at Asgore. "Is… is it over?" she asked.

Asgore turned to her with a large smile. "Yes. You did excellently." He then picked up his sandwich and finished it.

Undyne looked up at the Themes present with a huge grin on her face. "How was that?!" she asked, excitement showing through her voice. "Was that good enough for you?!"

Seeing her pride, which so perfectly mirrored its own, Spear of Justice couldn't help but smile at her. It felt, for the first time in its life, pride _for_ another person. It was honestly proud of Undyne's accomplishment, especially since Asgore hadn't made the match easy on her at all. Spear of Justice glanced briefly at Here I Am, who looked at it with a 'go on' expression, and then it looked back at Undyne and said, "That was more than good enough… that was impressive!"

Undyne beamed up at the Theme. "I'm yours, then?" she asked.

"You bet, kid," Spear of Justice replied, holding out its hand to her, which she accepted with a tight-gripped handshake. Spear of Justice felt a surge of power go through it as the connection was made, and, judging by Undyne's expression, she was feeling something similar.

They both knew that this was the start of something great.

* * *

"UNDYNE, UNDYNE, YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY!" Papyrus yelled as he ran up to Undyne's door and burst in without knocking.

Undyne and Spear of Justice exchanged a look. They already knew, of course, since Bonetrousle had told Spear of Justice the previous night and Spear of Justice had told Undyne, but Undyne feigned ignorance as she asked, "What happened?"

"I HAVE A THEME NOW! ITS NAME IS BONETROUSLE, AND IT'S GREAT!"

Bonetrousle made itself visible to Undyne and Spear of Justice, and it gave them both a smile. "What's up?" it asked.

"Punk!" Undyne said to Papyrus, "I'm proud of you."

"THANK YOU, UNDYNE! I LOOK FORWARD TO MORE WARRIOR TRAINING WITH MY THEME!"

"What do you say, Undyne?" Bonetrousle asked. "Do you think you could take on another pupil?"

"Only if Spear is up for it," Undyne said, looking up at her own Theme.

Spear of Justice beamed at Bonetrousle. "Yeah, let's do this, punk."

"YOU HEARD IT!" Undyne said proudly. "LET'S DO THIS THING!"

"NYEH HEH HEH! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!" Papyrus declared.

* * *

Undyne looked around, feeling a sense of dread settle over her. Where did that little lizard kid go? There was a rogue human on the loose, and… well, that human hadn't shown mercy before, so that poor kid wouldn't stand a chance. She looked frantically, trying to figure out where they had gone. When she finally did spot them… _No_. There was the kid, standing right in front of the human. Undyne didn't think; she acted, jumping in front of the kid with no time to prepare or defend herself. She felt the torn notebook somehow have enough force to crack through her armor and gouge deeply into her skin, tearing her apart. The worst part was that it was dull. If it had been a smooth cut, she was sure that it wouldn't have hurt so badly.

"Undyne… you're… you're hurt…" the kid said, looking shocked and horrified.

Undyne fought to keep the pain out of her voice as she said, "Hurt? It's nothing. Next time, listen when I tell you to leave, okay?"

' _It's nothing_ '? ' _Next time_ '? Spear of Justice fought off a laugh. It could feel Undyne's pain through their bond, and it knew that this was the end. There was no grand final battle. Heck, there wasn't even time for Spear of Justice to do anything. Simply one hit, and… that was that.

The kid looked at Undyne with concern. "Undyne… I…"

"I'll take care of this!" Undyne yelled at them. "Get out of here!" The kid reluctantly ran off, and Undyne chuckled darkly. "…heh… 'It's nothing'… No… s-somehow, with just one hit… I'm already… already…"

Spear of Justice felt its form waver as Undyne began to split apart into dust. Its life force was slipping away from it, and it could already tell that it wouldn't survive Undyne's death.

Even while dying, Undyne found the strength to keep talking. "Papyrus… Alphys… Asgore… Just like that, I… I've failed you."

Spear tried to find the words to reassure her, but none would come. This was the end, and Undyne technically had failed. The human was about to continue its murderous journey, just like that.

Undyne dissolved into dust, and Spear of Justice flickered out of existence.

Death pulled at both Theme and Monster from the darkness of the void.

But Undyne refused.

Spear of Justice felt life come back into its form in a strange new form, something that it had never felt before. The will, the drive to keep living, the drive to fight for those who needed protecting, the DETERMINATION to continue filled Undyne's entire body and Spear of Justice's entire being.

"… No…" Undyne said. Her voice shook a little, but she still spoke loud and clear.

Spear of Justice reached for a melody and found that its death had stripped it of its old melodies, but… it felt a new song, and began to display it. Low notes filled the air, channeling the power of Determination unlike any song before. Melodies only channeled magic, but somehow… Spear of Justice was doing the impossible. It was channeling pure Determination.

Undyne looked up at her Theme, and the two exchanged a meaningful look. They knew that this power would not sustain them indefinitely. They had to kill the human quickly before their very limited time ran out, but that resignation to the inevitable gave them all the more strength and resolve to push on.

"My body…" Undyne continued, speaking to the human. "It feels like it's splitting apart. Like any instant… I'll scatter into a million pieces. But… deep, deep in my soul, there's a burning feeling I can't describe, a burning feeling that WON'T let me die. This isn't just about monsters anymore, is it? If you get past me, you'll… you'll destroy them all, won't you? Monsters… humans… everyone… everyone's hopes, everyone's dreams, vanquished in an instant. But I WON'T let you do that. Right now… everyone in the world…" Undyne looked right at the human, making eye contact, and Spear of Justice could see the force of the Determination burning through her good eye. Undyne kept going, her voice getting stronger with every word. "I can feel their hearts beating as one. And we all have ONE goal, to defeat YOU. Human-no, WHATEVER you are. For the sake of the whole world, I, UNDYNE, will strike you down!"

Spear of Justice felt the rush of power as Undyne pulled herself together into a new form. It was completely unheard of for a monster to do this, but Spear had always known that Undyne was different. Similarly, it felt a new melody, even stronger than its title melody, available to it, and it was ready for this last fight. It was ready to end this once and for all.

"Let's finish this," Spear said.

"Agreed," Undyne replied. "Human, you're gonna have to try a little harder than THAT."

Spear of Justice felt its new melody take hold, and it released it, feeling the sheer power and Determination that it could channel though it. It watched as Undyne focused her attacks on the human and struck it with blows. It channeled her power to help her to attack better, faster, and more powerfully than ever before. It channeled her Determination to keep her alive and going.

As the fight went on and Undyne kept getting hit by the human even as she weakened it with every turn, Spear couldn't help but think, " _If only Here I Am was here now. It would love this… a melody that can channel Determination. It's always loved this science and other nerdy stuff. I'd love to see the look on its face now._ "

"How are you holding up, Spear?" Undyne asked as she took another hit with a huge smile.

"Better than ever," Spear of Justice replied with a smile to match hers, even as it felt tears threaten its eyes. This was the end, and damn it, they were going to go out with a bang, and they were going to take the human down with them!

The human weakened, and Spear almost thought that it and Undyne had won, but they pulled out a healing item and kept going. Spear cursed, and Undyne's smirk grew a little in amusement. "It doesn't matter," she said. "They'll run out eventually, and then, we'll get them for good."

"Agreed," Spear said fixing its grin right back on its face and letting the Determination it was receiving from its bond shine through its eyes. Sure, the human couldn't see it, but it was still not going to show any weakness, for Undyne's sake. It kept its eyes on the battle as the power flowed through it.

Spear after spear struck the human. Blow after blow struck Undyne. Even with her Determination, Undyne had a limit, and Spear knew that that was coming soon. Monster and Theme alike grinned when they watched the human reach for a healing item only to find its pockets empty. The human gave a manic scowl and lunged at Undyne in fury.

It was truly a battle of Determination, Undyne and Spear against the human. It was a battle against a true hero.

" _That's what I'll name this melody,_ " Spear thought absently. " _Battle Against a True Hero…_ "

Spear kept fighting alongside Undyne as they continued to weaken the demented child before them. The human's health dropped further, and the end was in sight. Undyne was going to win. The Underground was going to be safe. Perhaps… perhaps Spear and Undyne would die after the Determination from the battle faded, but as long as the Underground was safe, they would be able to die in peace.

Suddenly, the tables turned. The human began to dodge better than before, and their attacks became more accurate. They struck…

Spear felt, again, the terrible sensation of its life being stripped from it. Undyne's health was gone, and her body began to shake and split again as she muttered, "Damn it… so even THAT power… it wasn't enough…?"

"I don't understand," Spear said softly. "I don't understand! Undyne, you were amazing! We… we should have…"

"Spear," Undyne said softly, "you were amazing, too. It's not your fault. It's not my fault. We did our best." She then turned to the human, and she laughed darkly as she triumphantly said, "If you… if you think I'm gonna give up hope, you're wrong! 'Cause I've… got my friends behind me. Alphys told me that she would watch me fight you… and if anything went wrong, she would… evacuate everyone." Undyne's voice became broken by her panting as she struggled to draw breath. Spear of Justice narrowly clung to life, trying to lend its strength to Undyne in these last moments. Undyne kept on. "By now, she's called Asgore and told him to absorb the 6 human SOULs."

Spear of Justice felt its form flicker and fade as Undyne's body began to lose its shape and melt. Even so, she kept talking, strong to the end. "And with that power… this world will live on!" Her voice sounded triumphant, like she had won.

Spear of Justice watched as Undyne's body dissolved into ash before it, too, followed her into the darkness of death.

* * *

 **A/N: I SWEAR I'LL EVENTUALLY WRITE A CHAPTER THAT DOESN'T END IN GENOCIDE, OKAY? Seriously though, these characters have songs that only appear in a genocide route, and so I need to write their genocide deaths to get the full story. I do know, however, that Undyne has her own interesting end in the neutral route, and if you want to see more of Undyne and Spear of Justice, I may revisit them later.**

 **Speaking of letting me know about things, I'd like to hear from all of you what you're curious about. In the reviews, please submit questions to me, and I'll answer them next chapter. This way, I know what I need to explain, and you can get the answers to anything you're curious about with my little AU that I've created. You can also hit me up on Tumblr, where I have the same name as here.**

 **To clarify what Spear of Justice's melodies are, they include Danger Mystery, Undyne, Run!, NGHHH!/Spear of Justice (I count those together since NGHHH! is basically the looped beginning of Spear of Justice), But the Earth Refused to Die, and Battle Against a True Hero.**

 **Oh, and before you go and ask, "Who is Here I Am? I looked through the OST and there's no track named that," check out track #83: Here We Are. I have a very interesting story planned for this little Theme, so look forward to it and Alphys coming up very soon.**

 **In any case, please review and let me know how I did! Reviews give me strength to keep writing! As usual, feel free to request any song, and I'll try to move it up and do it sooner. Thank you!**


	3. Here We Are

**Author's Note: I swear that I tried so hard to get this out sooner, but this chapter was kicking my butt, especially since I have a hard time nailing down scenes with intense emotion and little action or intense action and little emotion, and this chapter has a couple parts that fall under the "intense emotion and little action" category.**

 **That being said, MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING for suicidal thoughts, justification of suicide, and plans of suicide. Honestly, I haven't had any major suicidal thoughts in nearly three years, and writing this chapter started to bring them back, which is part of why I had to keep taking breaks on it. Still, I felt that this was a very important part of Alphys' character, and that I couldn't simply censor that out for my own comfort. For any of you out there who struggle with thoughts of suicide, I just want to let you know that giving up isn't worth it. There's always something to live for, even if it's small, and as you get through the day-by-day, it does get better eventually. I've tried to capture that in the end of this chapter, and, if you do choose to read this, I hope that you can see that message and take it to heart. It does get better; it does get easier.  
If you are suicidal, I really do ask that you proceed with caution, as there is one part nearing the end that could actually be a trigger. Before the triggering part, I have a line of asterisks instead of a usual line break, so you can simply stop there, and I have a summary of what happened at the bottom. Stay safe, everyone.  
**

* * *

 **Living Music** **Chapter 3: Here We Are**

Science wasn't easy. Alphys loved it, yes, which was the reason why she had recently accepted the job of being the Royal Scientist, but that didn't make it easy.

…Being trapped underground wasn't easy, either. Alphys had resolved to find a way to set them all free, if such a way existed, instead of this waiting game, vainly hoping that more humans would fall down. There were two possible ways to break the barrier, as far as Alphys could see. The first option was obvious. Due to the fact that it was cast by seven human magicians, it could be broken by a monster that had absorbed seven human SOULs, or had the equivalent SOUL power.

In regards to the other way, the barrier was made of magic, so if Alphys could somehow overload the spell and cause it to collapse out of sheer magic, they would be free. She was always hesitant to play with magic, though. The most prominent source of magical energy was the Core, and she didn't know why, but she always felt… uneasy around it. It didn't help that she didn't remember much about when it was constructed besides A: she was there, B: it was done by the previous Royal Scientist, whom she was a lab assistant to, and C: there was a reason why she couldn't properly remember working for the scientist.

Thus, Alphys was left staring blankly at charts of magic and SOUL power, wishing that she could figure out how to break the barrier. If only she could speak to an expert on magic, if only such an expert _existed_ , she would be able to make so much more progress on this.

With a sigh, Alphys closed the books and made her way back upstairs to her surface lab. She rode the escalator up to her room, where she took a book and started reading to distract herself from her current problems. She was a mere two weeks into her new job, and she already felt like she was failing. She didn't want to let Asgore down. How could she succeed?

* * *

"Hey, Punk," Spear of Justice said.

Here I Am looked over at the larger Theme and smiled. "You're picking up on Undyne's mannerisms already, I see," it replied.

"You bet I am! She's the best."

Here I Am gave a self-satisfied smirk. "So, you don't regret bonding with her?"

Spear of Justice avoided its gaze for a moment before sighing and admitting, "You were right, as usual. I'm glad you forced me to talk to her and to not wait."

"I'm glad," Here I Am said. It tried to hide its wistful tone, but it didn't quite succeed.

"Here," Spear of Justice said gently, "what's wrong?"

"N… nothing," Here I Am tried to say, but it gave up and said, "I just wonder when I'll get my Bonded." When Spear of Justice didn't reply for a moment, Here I Am continued, "I want someone who is mentally strong, not just magically or physically strong. I want someone who is analytical and who is willing to push the boundaries of magic."

Spear of Justice really didn't know how to comfort people, but it pulled Here I Am into a gentle hug. "You'll find your Bonded someday," it said softly. "It's alright."

Here I Am cracked a small smile. "Thank you, Spear," it said.

"Anytime, Punk," the other Theme replied.

* * *

Here I Am wandered invisibly through the Underground for lack of a better thing to do. It treaded lightly on the surface of the dimension, drifting easily through walls, observing without interacting. Out of curiosity, it drifted into the Hotland Lab. It had been at least a month since it had looked there last, just observing the abandoned equipment and wishing that it could interact with physical matter, so it was surprised to find that the lab was lit up and cleaned up. It looked through the lab to see who was there, and it noticed a figure bent over a desk, sobbing softly.

Here I Am didn't think; it just acted. It allowed itself to become visible and to gain enough physicality that it could touch the monster (though it still phased through objects… go figure). The lizard girl jumped in surprise at the light, feathery touch that was the only sensation of contact that the Theme could provide. "Hey…" Here I Am said gently, "are you okay?"

The girl wiped her tears away and replied, "Y-Yeah, I just… I c-can't figure out these magic equations. I'm supposed to be the Royal Scientist, b-but…" She broke into sobs again. "This m-magic stuff is pointless. N-no scientist before me tried t-to come up with equations to be able to use magic in this way, a-and I just c-can't figure out how to make new ones that work, a-and I don't have the equipment necessary t-to run tests, a-and Asgore is relying on m-me…"

The Theme rubbed her back comfortingly, wishing that it could provide more physical assurance than the ghost of a touch. A Theme could touch its own Bonded fairly well, though it couldn't move or drag the monster, but it could barely make any contact with any other monster. When the scientist looked up, the Theme offered her a small, reassuring smile. "It's okay. Just calm down, it'll be okay. What's your name?"

"A-Alphys," she said.

"It's good to meet you, Alphys. My name is Here I Am."

"Here I Am? That's an interesting n-name," Alphys replied, starting to smile a little.

Here I Am laughed. "I suppose it is," it admitted. "In any case, you're the new Royal Scientist?"

Alphys' small smile immediately disappeared. "Yeah," she answered in a tiny voice, and Here I Am immediately regretted asking.

The Theme fumbled for words for a moment before saying, "I… I like science, too." When Alphys didn't respond, it continued, "The other Themes really don't appreciate science. They just take our magic for granted as the staple of our existence and don't bother to wonder beyond that. I've always wanted to push the boundaries." At this, Alphys looked up at the Theme curiously, and it finished with, "I just can't do that myself, since it's impossible to run experiments without being able to _touch_ anything."

Alphys laughed, but the laughter had a bitter tone. "I can touch the equipment I have, but I just don't have what I need, and I can't figure anything out. Asgore would fund whatever I need, but I don't know what exactly that would be."

"Do you want me to help?" Here I Am blurted out before it thought about what it was saying.

Alphys looked at the Theme like it was a lifeline. "W… Would you be willing?"

"Of course, but I don't know how I could."

"I could always use your magic expertise. I-I mean, you're made of pure magic, right? And y-you live in a pure magic dimension, right?"

"That's true."

"I'm trying to figure out how magic could be used to b-break the barrier, and I could use the help of s-someone as knowledgeable as you."

Here I Am considered it for a moment. "Well, if you need someone with access to magic, I'm sure that I can help. I would love to work with you."

"I-I would love that," Alphys said.

It was the start of a wonderful partnership. Before long, Alphys and Here I Am both sort of realized that they would be perfect as each other's Bonded, so, one afternoon on break right after Alphys finished lunch, they sealed the bond. There was no battle, no flashy sequence, no witnesses, even, but they became bonded all the same, and it allowed them to work together more smoothly as they both strove to find a way to free all monsters.

* * *

Alphys and Here I Am chased the concept of using magic to break the barrier for months, but it was to no avail. The barrier was sealed not just with magic, but with the SOUL power of the seven human magicians who casted it, so it would take seven human SOULs, or the equivalent SOUL power, to break it. If only there was a way to get said 'equivalent SOUL power…'

Determination was the answer. If this force was what made up SOUL power, then what would happen if a being with magic was injected with Determination? Would its magic be able to break the barrier?

There was only one way to find out, and Here I Am was a willing test subject. It was difficult, at first, since there was no way to inject the liquid straight into a spirit being. Alphys and Here I Am tried several approaches, but the only result they got was when Alphys injected a tiny bit into herself. She was ready to take however much she needed, but Here I Am reminded her that they weren't even sure if it would work, so it wasn't worth risking her health, especially after the mild side-effects they saw for a couple days before she was back to normal.

So it was that Here I Am stayed out of its home dimension late into the night after even Alphys had fallen asleep, staring intently at charts and trying to discern how they could experiment with the Determination. It knew that it needed to go back to the magic-rich environment of its home. Sure, Themes didn't actually 'sleep' per say, but they needed to rest and rejuvenate in their pocket dimension, soaking up the pure magic.

"Magic," Here I Am muttered aloud. "MAGIC! OF COURSE! HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO STUPID?!"

Alphys awoke with a start and looked over at her Theme. "What are you talking about?" she asked sleepily.

"I can absorb magic!"

"Y-yeah…? So…?"

"If you can dissolve Determination into magic…"

Suddenly, Alphys was wide awake. She stared at Here I Am intently. "D-do you think we can?" she asked, sounding nervous yet hopeful.

"It's worth a try," the Theme replied resolutely.

Without another word, Alphys pulled on her lab coat and ran down the escalator from her apartment into the main lab before she hopped on the elevator to go down to the true lab. She hopped impatiently from one foot to the other as she rode the elevator down. As soon as it reached the bottom and the doors opened, she dashed out and made her way into the main laboratory area. She immediately began preparing her scientific instruments as Here I Am gathered magic together to distill into a liquid like they had done with the Determination. Alphys started up the distiller, and Here I Am directed the magic into it. Both watched intently as the distilled magic began to ooze out as pure white goo, which Alphys caught in a vial. Once one vial was full, she replaced it with another and another until she had five full vials of distilled magic. "O-okay," she said softly. "We need to inject this as-is into you and m-measure the results."

Here I Am shook its head gently and reminded her, "You haven't put the Determination into it yet."

"I-I know, but we need to m-measure what the effect is without the Determination first."

The Theme paused for a brief moment before nodding and coming closer. Alphys first tried to inject the magic into it before quickly realizing that distilled magic goop has mass and cannot be injected into a massless creature. Just as she realized this, Here I Am said, "Just pour it onto a tray, and I should be able to absorb it."

"O-okay," Alphys replied, following the Theme's orders.

It took a while, but Here I Am figured out how to cause the magic to slightly evaporate, at which point the Theme could immediately absorb it. During this process, Alphys silently recorded everything in her notes, alternatively watching and scribbling furiously. The Theme kept this up until all of the magic in the tray (one vial's worth) had been absorbed.

"H-how do you f-feel?"

"I feel…" the Theme started, trying to the find the words. "I feel energized and powerful, but also quite odd. I feel like there is too much power in me and I need to use it, but I don't feel like it's trying to burst out of me. I just feel like it's there… uncomfortably high levels of magical energy, but not painful at all. It feels almost… nice, but still somewhat unpleasant. I really don't know how else to put this."

Alphys scribbled this all down at a fast pace, making additional notes about her observations so that she could accurately revisit this information later. "W-well then, l-let's see if burning the energy will put you b-back to normal."

"I don't need to go back to normal. Right now, we should focus on mixing in the Determination," Here I Am said.

"B-but we need to measure the results of the experiment a-and see if there are any lasting effects after you burn off of the energy."

The Theme hesitated for a moment before relenting. "Alright, but I'll have to go to my home dimension in order to burn it off safely, and that will attract attention and a _lot_ of questions."

"D-do what you have to."

"Okay then."

* * *

Here I Am let off the magic in a controlled manner by playing its most lighthearted melody, a little tune that it had named Alphys in honor of its Bonded. As the fun little song played, it was accompanied by far more magic than a simple melody like that would be capable of channeling, and Here I Am didn't miss the odd looks that it was getting from other Themes as it proceeded to use more magic than it had ever been capable of channeling. Once the first tune was over, it switched to its main melody, which, according to Theme tradition, it had named Here I Am after itself, and allowed the more powerful and less lighthearted tune drain out the excess magic more quickly. Very soon, however, a white Theme came up. The pure white of the Theme combined with its generic shape showed that it was not bonded, and its large size showed its raw power. As it drew closer, Here I Am recognized it as none other than Megalovania. "Hello Mega," Here I Am said as casually as it could while managing far more magic than it was ever intended to channel.

"Here I Am," Megalovania replied, and the lesser Theme was left wondering if Mega was stating a fact in response to the previous statement, saying the name of the lesser Theme, or purposely leaving it ambiguous as a pun. Since it didn't know how to respond, Here I Am waited silently until Megalovania said, "You're using an awful lot of magic for a Theme your size. How are you managing that?"

"I… Alphys and I were experimenting with magic, and I ended up absorbing far more than I can hold within me. I had to come somewhere safe to channel it out of me."

"Experimenting with magic?" Megalovania asked, indicating a desire for more information on the topic.

"We're… we're trying to see if we can break the barrier."

Mega's eyes went wide as it stared disbelievingly at the smaller Theme. "Do you really think that you can do it without SOUL power?"

"Of course we can't, but we're going to try to make the most of the SOUL power we have. If I can take on the necessary Determination, my magic could become similar enough to SOUL magic to substitute for a SOUL, or at least part of one. If it works, then all it would take would be for enough Themes to take on enough Determination to shatter the barrier forever."

Megalovania was silent for a moment before it said, "I hope that this works, for everyone's sakes, but I especially hope that you don't get hurt in this process. You're a rather unique Theme. It would be a shame if something happened to you." Here I Am paused, trying to figure out how best to reply to that, but Megalovania added, "And, if this does work, let me know. I'll gladly volunteer to save everyone."

"You don't have to do that."

"I should. I'm arguably the most powerful Theme alive, and I have no Bonded to live for. I would be the best candidate for this if this works."

Here I Am thought about that before saying, "Alright, I'll let you know… but you shouldn't act all self-sacrificing just because you haven't found your Bonded yet. You'll find the right monster."

"I know," Megalovania said confidently before drifting off, leaving Here I Am to continue letting off its excess magic in peace.

* * *

"My magic levels are normal now," Here I Am said, phasing back into the physical plane of existence next to where Alphys was half-asleep at a table. The latter jerked awake, looking at the Theme with bleary eyes before she realized what it had said.

"E-everything is good? There's n-no effect?"

"I think I may have permanently increased my upper limit for magic, but other than that, I'm normal."

It was hard to tell with her glasses in the way, but Here I Am was pretty sure that Alphys' eyes had widened a little, and she said, "R-really? That's a good sign! I'll g-go mix up some of the magic with D-Determination now." She quickly stood and made her way over to where vials of pure of red sat in neat, tidy rows, their innocent appearance belying their powerful nature and dark origin. Alphys took the red liquid and poured it into a larger beaker, into which she added the thicker white goop of the concentrated magic. She then took a thin stirring rod and slowly stirred the two substances together until they had coalesced into a light-pink goo.

Here I Am floated down closer to the beaker holding the substance that would define the future of monsterkind. The pink goo inside looked so innocent, like face paint for a little girl, rather than the mixture of the two most powerful substances in the universe. Here I Am tried not to think of the irony of how that Determination that tinged it that innocent pink color was actually taken from the SOULs of little girls and boys.

"A-alright, I d-don't know how you can absorb that, b-but if you could try…" Alphys said hesitantly.

"Of course," her Theme interrupted. "But you do have to put it on a tray for me."

"R-right!" she replied, jumping up to get a fresh tray. "S-sorry I forgot."

"It's okay, really," Here I Am said softly. It watched as Alphys poured the goo onto the tray, and it started to feel a bit of apprehension. Was it really willing to do this? So much could go wrong. ' _No,_ ' the Theme told itself. ' _We've come too far. I'm_ _ **going**_ _to see this through._ ' With that in mind, Here I Am drifted down so that it slightly phased into the goo, and it focused its energy on evaporating the substance without allowing the Determination to separate from the magic. It used its magic to pull out the magic from the tray and manipulate it so that it held the Determination. It absorbed a bit of the magic infused with DT, but it could feel the DT suspended within its form, able neither to escape nor to be absorbed, so it felt very odd. Still, the Theme continued the process, and it felt more DT coalescing together within its magical body as more and more magic mixed with the DT was brought in.

"H-how's it g-going?" Alphys asked, sounding incredibly nervous.

"It's not really absorbing into me," Here I Am replied. "This might not work. I'm going to keep trying, though." It kept going until the tray was empty of magic and the Theme could feel the Determination sitting within itself as a cold, separate presence.

"I-I can see a bit of r-red shining though you," Alphys commented.

Here I Am was disappointed, but it wasn't ready to give up yet. "Maybe, if I just concentrate on breaking up the Determination so that it has no choice but to be absorbed…"

Almost immediately after Here I Am tried that, it cried out in pain. Its voice jumped and skipped octaves, glitching out like a computer program gone wrong. Through eyes blurred by pain, it could see Alphys running to it, trying desperately to do something, and it could see her mouth move as she tried to speak, but it could hear nothing but its own wordless screams as red-hot pain seared through its form, ripping it apart from the inside. It couldn't think, it couldn't move, and it couldn't do anything to control the power tearing at its very being. It vaguely saw Alphys collapse as the bond between Theme and monster carried the pain to her. The only cohesive thought it could make was, ' _NO_ ,' as it watched her writhe in agony to match its own.

Alphys could hardly move, but she forced the pain down, reminding herself that this pain wasn't her own and that nothing was actually happening to her. Even if, dog forbid, Here I Am died, the shattering of the link would most likely barely affect her, and so she knew that this pain had nothing to do with her. This knowledge gave her the strength she needed as she did the only thing she could think to do. She took a syringe and, with shaking hands, filled it with the pink goo. She hesitated as she held it over her arm, but the sight of her Theme, her best friend, in such pain gave her the strength necessary. She carefully guided the tip of the syringe in between her scales and sank it into the softer skin below before pressing down on the end. She felt the magic and Determination burn lightly, allowing her to feel its course through her veins and arteries as it spread through her body. For some reason, however, the Determination didn't hurt her like it had done to Here I Am; rather, it felt invigorating, albeit uncomfortable. She felt like she could take on the world at the moment if it wasn't for the fact that Here I Am was still in pain. Slowly, she approached her Theme, gently taking it into her arms and allowing their bond to carry its pain to her and to carry her newfound energy to it. It still writhed in her arms, moving so quickly and in such jerky motions that it blurred, but it seemed to be moving a little less spastically. Alphys closed her eyes and breathed deeply, focusing on her Theme. Later, she would feel terrible for what happened, but right now, Here I Am was all that mattered.

"Th _an_ k… y **ou** …" Here I Am said with a glitching voice before vanishing from this plane of existence.

Alphys reached through their bond to feel that the Theme was somewhere where its pain was being relieved somewhat, and she figured it was safe to assume that it had gone to the Themes' home pocket dimension. Relieved that it was somewhere where it could hopefully expel the magic and Determination safely, Alphys then turned to her lab and to the innocent-looking pink goo there. The stuff was far too dangerous for Themes, but perhaps it could have other uses. Still, she didn't want to think about it for the moment, so she carefully put it away into a freezer box before she laid down to rest. It had been a long, long night.

* * *

Here I Am shuddered and shook, but it took comfort in the familiar magic of its home. It still felt like it was being torn apart, but it was starting to get numb to the pain. Idly, it watched the swirling, colorful patterns of ambient magic that flowed gently through the dimension: white, light blue, green, orange, and the occasional bit of dark blue, purple, and gray. Thankfully, there was no such thing as red magic. It didn't think that it could stand the color red at the moment.

Dimly, it became aware of a green shape approaching and heard a familiar voice say, "Kid? What happened to you?"

"S… Spear?" Here I Am asked.

"The one and only," Spear of Justice replied. "What happened to you?"

"Experiments…"

"If that little twerp did something to you…!"

"No… it was… my idea."

Silence hung between the two Themes as Spear of Justice looked at its friend. Gently, it pulled the latter into a hug. "Are you okay?" it asked.

"N-no… I hurt… torn apart…"

"You do look blurry. You look like you're multiple Themes that are phased through each other."

"I feel… disconnected… like I'll fall apart… at any moment…"

"Just hold onto me," Spear of Justice said softly, gripping Here I Am very, very tightly, as if it could fuse its friend back together by sheer force.

* * *

Alphys awoke upon feeling an odd sensation on her shoulder. She looked over to see her Theme, but Here I Am looked blurry, like overlapping images.

"Hello, Alphys," it said, its voice sounding like multiple voices overlapping.

"W-what happened?"

"The Determination tore me apart. I've been split up into several forms, it seems, and these forms are almost independent, yet still tied together. I can separate, but it feels… uncomfortable."

"Here I Am…" Alphys said softly, feeling awful for what she'd inadvertently done.

"From here on out, I… or, rather, _we_ will be known as Here We Are. We are distinct enough that we feel as though singular indications don't work for us anymore. It's hard, but… we'll get used to it."

A couple tears slipped from Alphys' eyes before she could force them down, but she nodded all the same. "I understand."

"Thank you, Alphys," the Theme… or …Themes? The Themes said with smiles. "You're still our Bonded. That won't change. We are just something new, now, and this is a wonderful opportunity to keep testing and trying new things."

Alphys looked at it… them… in shock. "N-no! I c-can't do anything else to you!"

"We've already been through a lot," Here We Are countered. "No further experimentation could make things worse, we think. Besides, this shouldn't all be for nothing. You and we should see if we have the power to open the Barrier now."

Alphys merely nodded, not trusting her voice. So much had happened in the last… what, 12 hours, if even that long? Still, she had to be strong for her Themes. They deserved a strong Bonded to get them through this.

* * *

The Barrier loomed before them. Alphys had told Asgore that she suspected that she had found a way to simulate SOUL power and needed to run tests, and Asgore, being the understanding person he was, offered to go make her some tea while she ran said tests. Now, Here We Are and Alphys stood in front of the Barrier, watching its hypnotic power as its magic ran through it.

Here We Are took a moment to relax themselves before drifting closer to the Barrier, steeling themselves for what they were about to do. They reached out a blurred arm (or, more accurately, a multitude of arms that were phased together) and touched the Barrier. It was as solid as ever, and didn't give way under their touch even the slightest bit, which was discouraging, but the Themes weren't about to give up. They channeled their magic into the Barrier, focusing the Determination within their magic in order to break down the inherent Determination in the Barrier itself.

They focused and focused, and…

 _The Barrier didn't weaken at all._

Here We Are tried again, pummeling the spell made up of magic and Determination - SOUL power - with their own blend of magic and Determination.

 _The Barrier didn't weaken at all._

They began to panic, pushing all of their might and force against the Barrier.

 _The Barrier didn't weaken at all._

They felt their forms tremble as they looked back at Alphys' broken expression. Through their bond, they felt Alphys' sorrow and despair that matched their own. All of it had been for nothing. Here I Am had been ripped apart for _nothing_.

Alphys' tears were lightly tinged with red from the Determination that still hadn't quite processed through her body, and Alphys looked at her own tears with a mixture of comfort and disgust. Sure, her act of injecting herself with the Determination-magic blend had saved her Theme from dying completely, but it wouldn't have needed it if she and the Theme hadn't decided to infuse it with Determination and magic in the first place.

It was just… beyond disappointing. Yes, Alphys and Here We Are hadn't expected Here We Are's power alone to shatter the Barrier, but the fact that there had been no effect _at all_ indicated that no amount of Themes with Determination would help. It seemed that simply adding Determination to magic in a living spirit being wasn't close enough to SOUL power.

Everything had been for nothing.

* * *

SOULs were the answer. A monster SOUL wasn't nearly as strong as a human SOUL, but, just like how saving mere pennies can eventually add up, enough monster SOULs could eventually equate a human SOUL. Three more human SOULs were needed, so that would mean about 400 monster SOULs, but the total population of all of the Underground (including the really far-off and out of the way places like Altus and Swampland) was high enough that a little less than 1000 monsters died of non-violent causes every year. They could obtain enough SOULs within six months.

…if only monster SOULS lasted after death. Even a Boss monster's SOUL only lasted for a few seconds unless absorbed by a human. Determination was the defining quality of human SOULs, so could that be the reason why they lasted after death? Could adding Determination to dying monsters allow their SOULs to persist?

There was only one way to find out. Alphys told Asgore her hypothesis, and he sent out the request for everyone to send in monsters who had "fallen down" but had not yet dissolved into dust. As 50 bodies (a surprisingly high amount) came in, Alphys and Here We Are looked at each with a bit of sadness, even though they knew none of them personally.

As one monster came in, Here We Are sensed the faint bond of a Theme. It looked at the monster, a female snow monster who seemed to be about halfway through her life expectancy. Her Theme was likely off on its own in the far reaches of the Themes' home dimension as its life force drained away. Most Themes that were bonded to monsters liked to die quietly and alone at home in the Themes' dimension, just letting their life forces slip away and their magic rejoin with the magic that resided in their home. Here We Are wondered who it was, but they decided that such questioning could wait. After all, the snow monster was already technically dead, and only had the tiniest bit of magic left in her body, so the Theme must have already faded to being invisible even to other Themes and must have been in a completely comatose state. Even if Here We Are could find it, they wouldn't be able to communicate with it, and they and Alphys had a job to do.

The amount of bodies was much higher than they had anticipated, so they didn't have enough beds to rest the monsters on, but Alphys put them on worktables and benches and even on blankets on the floor. Here We Are found it impractical but charming that Alphys always tried to put the bodies on things and give them blankets to make them "comfortable," despite the fact that they couldn't feel anything. It would have been more charming if it wasn't for the fact that Alphys was wasting precious time, since these monsters were not going to stay in coherent forms for long before they dissolved into dust and their SOULs dissipated into nothingness.

Finally, Alphys told Asgore to tell everyone that she had enough, and she got to work on the ones that she had received. Carefully, she injected pure, undiluted Determination into the spot right above where the SOUL should be on each monster. It took an entire day just to complete this task (partly because Alphys ran out of Determination and had to distill more from the human SOULs partway through), so Alphys was very tired by day's end, and Here We Are felt her exhaustion. Once Alphys went to bed, Here We Are popped back into the Themes' home dimension to rest. They had noticed that, since their transformation, they needed to go home and rest in the ambient magic there more often. The unnatural Determination in their form drained their magical energy and lowered their endurance. ' _Ha, ha, it's ironic that Determination, the power to continue, wears me down and makes me feel like giving up,_ ' they thought idly as they rested.

* * *

After three days, Alphys and Here We Are knew something was wrong. The bodies brought in first should have dissolved within the first couple of days, yet they were still held together, almost as if the Determination was keeping the last of the magic holding them together from dissipating naturally. Alphys and Here We Are didn't know what to do. Would it be right to end them in order to try to harvest their SOULs, or would it be better to wait?

They elected to wait.

Days went by, and there was still no change. Alphys spent her days working on her side project, the robotic body for her friend Mettaton, and Here We Are spent much of their time in the Themes' dimension, using the ambient magic to sustain themselves.

Then, one of the bodies that had been brought in opened its eyes, and everything changed from there. Before Alphys and Here We Are could even comprehend what had happened, all of the monsters that had been brought in were up and walking around like nothing had happened. Many were asking where they were, how they'd gotten there, and where their families were. Alphys worked to answer their questions as she examined them. She found that they were, indeed, perfectly healthy and fine, despite the fact that they'd all been mostly dead entire days before. It was an impossible miracle; Alphys and Here We Are were floored. Sure, it wasn't the miracle that they'd been hoping for, but if they had effectively learned how to cure death, they'd just found something even better in the long run. Humans would eventually fall, most likely, but a cure for death would be valuable forever. Alphys knew that she couldn't jump to conclusions, and these monsters may very well die again in the future, but even extending their lives for a while was better than nothing.

Alphys and Here We Are could theorize later. For now, it was time to get ready to send them home. Alphys decided not to tell the families ahead of time, since she didn't want them to get their hopes up too high. After all, these revived monsters weren't quite back to normal. They were a little paler in color, a little slower in speech, movement, and comprehension, and a little bit sickly. It was a marked improvement from death, of course, but Alphys didn't want the families to think that their beloveds were fine and then get the revived versions back and be disappointed. Besides, she wanted to see the surprise and joy on their faces as she reunited the patients with their families.

As Alphys sorted out charts and data, Here We Are took a short break to talk to the snow monster that they had seen previously. They went up to her and saw her smiling and laughing as if she hadn't been mostly dead the day before. They could also sense her connection to her Theme, and they followed the connection home to find this Theme. When they looked, they saw a slightly dazed-looking pure white Theme, so they went up to it.

"Hello," they said. "Are you bonded with a snow monster?"

"Yes," the other Theme replied. "I… I am. My name is Icy. What's yours?"

"The name used to be Here I Am, but our name is now Here We Are. It's… a bit of a long story, but we think it's a story that you need to know. We're guessing that you just woke up from near death, didn't you?"

Icy looked at Here We Are skeptically, trying to puzzle out the meaning behind the plurals in the pronouns and name of Here We Are. Still, Icy nodded. "Yes, that is exactly right. My Bonded fell, so I sought out my 'sibling', Snowy, before I came here to prepare for death. I felt myself slip away, but then I felt this burning sensation that reinvigorated me, and I was suddenly fine. I didn't know what to think. I still don't know."

"Snowy… that's Snowdin's Theme, right?"

"Yes."

"Ah, we like Snowy. It's nice. In any case, we have an explanation as to what happened to you. If you would just come with us…?"

Icy eyed the blurred, quintupled hand that Here We Are extended to it dubiously before placing its own hand in the centermost hand. Here We Are flashed it a smile before pulling it through space into the lab. Icy and Here We Are spent the next couple of hours talking as Here We Are explained everything, and then, once they had finished their explanation and finished answering questions from Icy, the Themes talked amiably for a while. Icy eventually got tired and went back home, but the Themes agreed to talk again soon.

Everything seemed good.

.

.

.

Something was wrong.

It started simply enough, a little change so small as to almost be unnoticeable. The monsters' colors faded a bit more, and they seemed to look a little… melty. The skin of each was holding together, and each monster's shape was mostly the same, but Alphys and Here We Are noticed that they looked a little like they were melting down. They weren't as tall as before, they were a little wider, their joints seemed less defined than before, and they just generally looked like candles left in the sun for a little too long. The mental comparison was disturbing, and Alphys looked closely at them to try to figure out what was wrong. By the time she had put the patients to bed, she had many questions and no answers.

 _Something was wrong._

For her log, Alphys simply wrote, "Something's wrong," figuring that she would add more to it later when she had some real answers.

 _Something was wrong._

Here We Are went into the Themes' dimension to rest in the ambient magic, but they couldn't quite relax. Sleep—or, at least, the Themes' version of sleep—eluded them. They tried to rest, but they couldn't stop thinking about the patients at the lab.

 _Something was wrong._

Here We Are decided to check in on the patients just to make sure that everything was okay. They popped into the lab, and their eyes widened at the sight before them.

 _ **Something was really wrong.**_

The patients were very melted, their skin no longer able to hold them in shape, and they were starting to melt into each other. Their voices were distorted and broken as they cried out for help and asked what was happening to them. They begged for salvation.

Here We Are immediately rushed to Alphys and woke her up, rushing her over to see the patients. Both the doctor and the Themes scrambled to find a cause and a solution, while the problem became steadily worse.

"Don't touch each other!" Alphys commanded the melting monsters, but the dogs only huddled closer together.

"Stay by the fans to stay cool!" Here We Are shouted, but the fans only blew some Vegetoids into the snow monster that Icy was bonded to.

"T-try to pry yourselves apart!" Alphys called to a few sets of monsters while trying to help another set, but the mixtures of small monsters only melted into each other further, turning into multi-eyed blobs with wispy tails.

"Try to eat some food!" Here We Are suggested, but the food passed right through the liquid-like flippers of a Final Froggit.

Something was very, very wrong, and there was no solution in sight. The resuscitated monsters continued to melt together, and Alphys and Here We Are were helpless to do anything about it.

Here We Are felt a strange connection to the monsters, not unlike a bond. They could feel what the monsters felt: a burning sensation ripped through their bodies, a bright fire of life that was, ironically, killing them. The Determination overwhelmed their minds and bodies, causing them to fall apart internally and deteriorate externally. Here We Are could sympathize, as they remembered their form being torn apart by the Determination. In a vain hope to help somehow, they reached out to the dying monsters, trying to connect with them and share their pain.

 _Something was right._

As Here We Are reached out to the monsters, they felt actual connections like miniature bonds being made, and they were able to connect with the monsters and reach out to them. They extended hope and strength to the monsters, and they felt the monsters reach back. The Themes accepted their pain, taking it into themselves and sending back the very strength that they used to overcome their own death by Determination. They could feel the minds of the monsters becoming stronger, more aware, and more conscious as they started to embrace the foreign Determination in them and use the very thing killing them to save them, just as Here We Are had done.

The monsters began to recover… to some extent. The ones that had already melted remained melted together, but they were starting to solidify into new forms. They weren't melting any further. Their minds became united fusions of the minds of the monsters that they consisted of. They would never again be the monsters they were before, but these amalgamates were new creatures with lives of their own.

Alphys looked on in amazement, able to feel a hint of what Here We Are were feeling from the amalgamates through her actual bond with the Themes. She was slightly disturbed but mostly overjoyed that the monsters were regaining some semblance of life and would be able to continue on like this, even if they would not return to how they used to be. She would not be able to fix them, but at least she could help them now that they were stable.

And so, Alphys, Here We Are, and the amalgamates lived in the lab. Everything was alright… sort of. Nothing was actually good or okay or even fine, really, but it was livable. It was decent. Alphys could live with what she'd done.

 *******(TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDAL THEMES)*******

Alphys couldn't live with what she'd done. Every day, she took care of the amalgamates and worked with her Themes and communicated with Asgore and worked with Mettaton as if nothing was wrong, and yet, everything reminded her of what really was wrong. She couldn't fix anything. The amalgamates were cursed to forever exist in their combined, horrific forms. Here We Are were cursed to forever exist as their split selves, constantly a singular plural, living a conundrum. Asgore waited for Alphys to find a way to break the barrier, yet Alphys was too scared to try anything new after the horrors that she had created.

(There was something else that nagged at her mind. After she had returned the flower that she had injected Determination into back to Asgore, he had told her that the flower had disappeared. Since the flower hadn't been affected by the Determination, Alphys assumed that it had simply died, but there was a constant feeling bothering her that something wasn't quite right.)

Working with Mettaton was Alphys' only reprieve, since the little ghost really appreciated everything she did for them and took her advice about how to create their TV persona and their body. She spent a lot of time with them—later him, since the little ghost decided to take on a male identity to go with their/his new body—and she enjoyed most of it. Even so, she felt so incompetent whenever she made mistakes with the body and whenever she had to tell him that there was another delay.

Everything sucked.

Here We Are didn't exactly have it any easier. They felt a constant desire to just… give up. It took conscious effort to hold themselves together, and it was exhausting. They just wanted a reprieve. They wanted to have an end in sight, and yet no hope came for them.

They did, admittedly, try to give up once. They let themselves go, trying to let the Determination in their form rip them apart once and for all, but the pain was too intense. All they could think about was how they wanted it to stop, and the only way they could think of to stop it was to fight it, so they did. They fought their way through the pain until they were back to their usual, fragmented selves. Then, they simply sank into sadness and depression. Knowing that giving up was harder than continuing on, and continuing on was too hard already, just crushed them.

All told, neither Alphys nor Here We Are knew who had starting feeling like giving up first, but their bond spread that feeling to both of them. They had made things worse left and right. Perhaps the world would be better off without them. They sure felt like that was the case.

All things came to an end eventually. Would it really be so bad for one little monster who had made so many mistakes and one little Theme who was so messed up that it was fragmented into multiple Themes and should have died long ago to bring themselves to their end a little sooner than fate had decreed? Was it really so wrong to stop trying?

Alphys didn't think so. Here We Are didn't think so.

* * *

Spear of Justice knew that something had been wrong with its friend. It knew, of course, of the horrible fate that had ripped Here I Am into pieces, since it had been there when Here I Am had to restructure itself into Here We Are, but Here We Are had been pretty normal since then. They had to come back home to rest very often, and they spent most of that time in a sleep-like state to absorb ambient magic to keep themselves running, but they were otherwise pretty much fine. They would still converse with Spear every once in a while, and they would talk about how much they loved Alphys and what a great and supportive Bonded she was to them. They listened as Spear told them about its Bonded, Undyne, and how great she was and how determined she was to become captain of the Royal Guard.

(It didn't escape Spear's notice that Here We Are flinched at the use of the word "determined," though it didn't understand why that word would bother them so much.)

More recently, however, Spear of Justice had noticed that Here We Are were a lot quieter than usual. They went about their business quietly, not socializing with other Themes unless approached, and, even then, they talked as little as possible. They seemed very distant and sad constantly, seeming depressed. Spear knew that they were tough, but it started to worry for them.

The worries only compounded when they spoke to Undyne about this. She had never met Alphys, but she was close with Asgore, who was Alphys' boss, and he had told her that he was a bit concerned that Alphys hadn't been reporting to him as often as she used to and that whenever she did, she always said as little as possible and evaded his questions. Undyne wasn't exactly the most perceptive person, but she could put 2 and 2 together, and so could Spear of Justice, and they knew that something was wrong with both Alphys and Here We Are.

Spear of Justice tried its best to talk to Here about what was wrong, but they always avoided any conversation about themselves or their Bonded. They always dismissed Spear's questions with evasive statements and excuses of being tired, and Spear knew that it needed to take matters into its own hands if it was going to get any answers about how to help its friend(s). (Spear still didn't know whether to refer to Here as a friend or as friends. The pluralization of a split being was complicated, and the fact that Here weren't willing to define themselves or the boundaries of when to pluralize and when not to and were, in fact, completely unwilling to have any conversations about themselves didn't help.) Spear knew that something needed to be done, but what? How could it help when they obviously didn't want help? Spear didn't know, and it couldn't stand feeling so powerless.

Looking back later, Spear of Justice would say that what it did next was its best worst decision. It had decided to just check on Here and Alphys once in a while, lightly spying without gathering any information other than just how they appeared to be doing at the moment. It couldn't see the lower level of the lab, since an anti-Theme barrier of magic had been put up by Here We Are so that only they could go through, but Spear could still look into the upper levels and could see them when they were there or when they left the lab (which was very rare).

One day, Spear of Justice invisibly popped into the lab, being cautious. Even when a Theme was invisible from monsters, it was still visible to other Themes, so it was careful to stay out of the way, hiding in the corner in hopes that Here wouldn't look right up at it. When it looked, though, it saw that they weren't there at all, and neither was Alphys. It figured that they were both downstairs, but it then saw that the elevator was at the top, so that couldn't be the case. Thus, Spear of Justice decided to look for them, and the first place to look was the garbage dump waterfall. It knew that they went there often when Alphys was looking for objects that fell from the human world, ranging anywhere from scientific equipment to cheap anime, so it figured that if the both of them were anywhere but the lab, they would be there.

It found them, but it was far less happy about that fact than it thought it would be.

Alphys stood over the long, long drop-off, and Here We Are were explaining just how deep the chasm below was, how the chasm went off in both directions, and how this hole was simply from the water above eroding all the way through the thick rock to create this drop-off. The water went down so, so very far before crashing in white mist into the bedrock below, flowing out in an underground river until it met a deep trench in the ocean, so far down that it was actually warm from the thinness of the earth's crust at that point. They also explained that, though the Barrier's spell was designed so that it would cover any exit from the underground, even ones drilled after the Barrier was first established, this wasn't considered an exit, since it didn't exactly go to the surface, but that there was no way anything could survive the drop and the water beneath anyway.

Hearing the Themes explain all of this to Alphys, who really should already know most, if not all, of the information already, Spear became very suspicious. It saw the grave look on Alphys' face and the detached yet sad look on Here's faces, and it realized what the reason might be for Alphys to want to hear all of these facts. It didn't want to jump to conclusions, but…

"W-will I die before hitting the bottom?" Alphys asked.

"That is possible," Here replied. "If not, then you will die the instant you hit, without even feeling the sensation of hitting."

"It will be p-painless, then?"

"Yes."

Alphys paused, and Spear of Justice silently hoped that she would say that she wasn't going to do it, that she would walk away, but instead, she said, "Alright, j-just… give me a moment."

A cold sensation took over Spear's form, freezing it in place. It wanted to go, it wanted to run and get Undyne, but it was so shocked that it couldn't even move.

"If you don't to do this, please don't," Here said softly.

Alphys' voice wavered only a little as she replied, "I… I want to."

"This won't fix anything."

"B-but… I can't live with this."

"I can't live with this, either."

"I'm responsible for your p-pain."

"It was my idea. I take full responsibility. We both messed up, and now it's your choice as to what you want to do about it."

"I want t-to take your pain away… and mine, too."

"If I focus on my lesser bonds with the…" Here trailed off, sighing. "If I do that, they may also die."

"That's p-probably… best."

"I really want to know that you're sure. Are you completely sure that this is what you want? I can hold on. I can persevere if you don't want this."

Alphys hesitated, and Spear dared to hope that she would say no, but…

"Yes."

…she did not. This confirmation that, yes, Alphys and Here We Are were about to commit suicide together was enough to shake Spear of Justice out of its shock, and it blipped over to Undyne's house in an instant, pulling through space to teleport instead of simply floating the short distance. Once there, it cried out to Undyne, "Undyne, you've got to come, quick! Alphys is about to die!"

Undyne looked up from her cooking, looking thoroughly confused, but, thankfully, she did not ask questions. She followed her Theme out of the house and into the garbage dump area, where Alphys stood on the precipice, taking deep breaths, looking into the chasm below, while Here touched her shoulder gently, neither pushing her forward nor pulling her back. "What am I supposed to do?" Undyne whispered to her Theme.

"Pretend like you just came here to find stuff from the dump. Act casual. Pretend like you have no idea what's going on. Just get her away from the edge!" Spear of Justice whispered back.

Undyne's expression smoothed over into a pleasant neutral as she walked forward, and Spear floated casually beside her, as if the two were out for a stroll without a care in the world. "Hey!" Undyne called out, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

Alphys was visibly startled at the sudden sound, jumping backwards a little and falling on her butt before she looked over to the source of the sound. "H-h-hi," she stuttered, clearly shaken.

"Oh, hello Here We Are," Spear of Justice said, doing its best, in turn, to pretend to be pleasantly surprised to have run into its friend outside of the Themes' home dimension.

"Ah, Spear of Justice, what a coincidence," Here replied with a dry tone to their voice, indicating that they suspected that this was not a coincidence at all.

"I see our Themes know each other," Undyne said to Alphys conversationally.

"Y-yeah, I suppose they do," Alphys agreed, unsure how to feel about that.

"I'm Undyne, the new Captain of the Royal Guard." She held out a hand to Alphys.

Alphys took the hand in her own shaking one, replying, "I-I'm Alphys, the Royal Scientist."

"Oh, so _you're_ Alphys! King Asgore talks about you sometimes. He really appreciates everything you do for him, you know, right? He's often praising what new innovation you've come up with or discovery you've made."

Alphys laughed nervously. "Y-yeah, he's really nice, e-even to people who aren't that great. He loves talking people up, even if they don't d-deserve it."

Undyne responded with a clear, lighthearted, sincere laugh that helped to clear the clouds of tension and despair. "From the way he talks about you, I think he honestly admires the work you do for him, and, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm impressed with anyone who can do that stupid math junk! I'd much rather solve a problem with my fists and spears than with math."

Alphys let out a little giggle at that, and she gave a shy smile as she replied, "W-well, I'm not strong enough to punch through problems, so I have to try to use science, even when it…" She trailed off, the smile slipping off her face, and she finished in a voice barely above a whisper. "Even when it doesn't work out the way it's supposed to."

"Heh," the soldier laughed humorlessly. Sure, she didn't understand science, but she did understand mistakes. "You know what the stupidest saying ever is?"

Blinking back tears, Alphys looked at her curiously. "No, what is it?" she asked.

"'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.' It's so misused, and it leads to more pain than it solves. People think that anything they survive should make them instantly better and stronger, so they beat themselves up when that isn't the case. The truth is that what doesn't kill you beats you down and does its best to weaken you and to finish you off, and it's only when you fight back that you get stronger. Every battle where you get beaten down weakens you, but every time you get back up again and fight back, you get stronger than ever before. That's why I teach a new saying to the new recruits for the Royal Guard: 'What doesn't kill you makes you weaker, but fighting back makes you stronger.' I think it fits better than the original, don't you?"

Alphys was silent, considering Undyne's words, before she said, "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Look, Alphys," Undyne said, lightly placing a hand on the scaly shoulder of the lizard woman. "I don't know what you were doing when I walked in, but I know what it looked like."

Alphys tensed.

"The point isn't that I want confirmation of what's going on," Undyne continued. "I don't need to know what would have happened if I hadn't come by. It's not my business to know that. The point is that running from your problems won't fix anything. You haven't lost until you give up."

Alphys looked up, finally making real eye contact with Undyne. "Thanks for that," she murmured. "I really needed to hear that."

Undyne smiled. "Look, how about you come to my place for some tea? I've got Golden Flower tea if you want it, or I've got Echo Flower tea, standard green tea, black tea, and I even bought a package of fancy tea that fell from the Surface from my uncle Gerson a couple days ago."

"B-black tea sounds good," Alphys replied, following Undyne to her house.

Spear of Justice felt immense relief rushing through it until it caught the gaze(s) of Here We Are.

"This wasn't an accident, was it?" they asked.

Spear considered its answer before deciding to be honest. "No, it wasn't."

There was a pause in which Spear wondered what they would do next, but finally, they said, "Thank you, I suppose. I… I'm glad that you came, even if I'm… still stuck here. Alphys deserves better."

Spear wrapped its arms around Here's broken form, squeezing it tight. "I know it's hard for you to keep going on. I know you're in pain and that you want to give up, and while I don't know why Alphys feels similarly, I know that her feelings must be amplifying yours. Just, please… _please_ promise me that you won't give up. I'm here for you. I'll help you in any way I can. I know that your condition won't get better, and I know that you'll be tempted to just end your suffering, but I'm here, and Alphys is here, and Undyne can be here, too, now. I want to help you through this darkness, even if you'll never be fully free of it. So come on, punk, just let me help you try. Here We Are, we are here _for you_."

Here returned the hug as they said, "Alright, I'll try not to give up anymore."

* * *

In the years that followed, Undyne and Alphys became as close as their respective Themes had already been, and Undyne and Spear of Justice helped Alphys and Here We Are through their suicidal tendencies. It took a lot of time, and Alphys still didn't have much self-respect, and Here still felt pain constantly, and neither they nor Alphys told anyone about the amalgamates, but, even so, they began to feel an honest desire to keep going, to keep trying, to fight back and become stronger. Undyne and Spear made rather good life coaches, always encouraging in a really gruff sort of way, though they were certainly fans of tough love. Alphys couldn't always handle Undyne's… intense personality, but she really appreciated all of the care that Undyne showed her, and she reciprocated that care, coupled with more… romantic affections. Maybe it was cliché to fall for the woman who saved her life, but Alphys didn't care either way. Undyne was the first person to really, truly make Alphys feel valued, and Alphys wanted her by her side always. It took many years, along with a certain human child whose natural determination drove them to discover Alphys' secrets and help her to reveal them to everyone, but, eventually, Alphys did end up with Undyne, and they lived very, very happily together on the surface.

As for Here We Are and Spear of Justice, they learned to live with each other and with the romantic relationship between their respective Bonded monsters. Spear was there for Here through all of their pain, helping them to face each day boldly and to rest and recover well each night.

All told, things were finally, finally happy, and no one wanted that to ever be changed or undone. Sure, things weren't perfect or ideal, but the problems were problems that everyone could live with, so long as they had each other.

* * *

 **AN: For those of you who skipped down after the trigger warning, all that happened after was Alphys and Here We Are mutually deciding on suicide, but Spear of Justice saw them as Alphys prepared to jump off the waterfall in the garbage dump, and it got Undyne. Undyne casually encouraged Alphys and invited her over for tea to get her away from the ledge, and that was the start of their friendship, and, later, relationship. For any of you out there who are suicidal, I hope you have an Undyne in your life to lead you gently away from the edge and comfort you.  
**

 **Well, here's one of the biggest world-building chapters I'll ever have. I know many of you were looking forward to Mettaton and Death by Glamour, but this one needed to come first to set the basis for his relationship with Alphys. I know we didn't really see him in this chapter, but next chapter will feature him and his cousins, and the chapter after that will be the one that everyone's been waiting for. :)**

 **And now, as promised, the Q and A!**

Q: Can humans bond with Themes?

A: The short, straightforward answer is no, because Themes bond using magic, and humans don't have magic. The long answer, on the other hand, is far more complicated, as Spear of Justice proved that Themes can channel Determination depending on the circumstances. Spear of Justice's case was special, however, since it gained the Determination through its bond (of magic) with Undyne. A Theme cannot be directly injected with Determination, and it cannot gain Determination except through a magic link, whether through its Bonded or through absorbing magic mixed with Determination, such as in the case of Here We Are. Here We Are would have fallen apart, however, if it hadn't been for Alphys injecting herself with a little of the same substance so that she could channel the energy through their bond, so this makes this point invalid and leaves the original answer as "no," since a Theme cannot take on a second bond or change its bond. Here We Are sort of took on additional "bonds," but these were not true bonds, and these were only possible because of the mutual trait of the artificial Determination. Here We Are wouldn't be able to truly Bond with anyone besides Alphys until she died, and even in the rare cases where a Theme survives the death of its Bonded, it cannot bond again, and it slowly fades out of existence.

So, with all that, the answer is cut-and-dried, right? No, since the lovely Toby Fox made it canon (see the plaques in Waterfall) that some humans could use magic. 7 "magicians" put up the barrier, which is stated to be a magic spell. I'm going to hesitantly say that a Theme could, potentially, bond with a magic-using human, but I may change this later if I modify the world-building.

Even with all of this in consideration, a human can **never** , under any circumstances, see a Theme or hear its speaking voice, so a Theme would likely never bond with a human anyway. However, there will be an upcoming chapter about a certain Theme that basically establishes a connection, though not a bond, with a human, so look forward to that one whenever I get around to it (chapter 6 at the very earliest, though probably later).

Q: What's the Themes' dimension like?

A: If a human could see it, it would be a blank, gray expanse. If a monster could see it, they would see the Themes in it and their magic channeling whenever they practiced, but that would be all, since monsters really can't see ambient magic. A ghost monster, being mostly magic with very little physical matter, would be able to see faint colors of ambient magic in addition to the Themes and the channeled magic, though not very much. Themes, on the other hand, are highly attuned to ambient magic, as they are spirit beings of pure magic, and their home dimension is filled with beautiful threads and waves of many colors of magic, which align themselves to the Themes present. Each Theme has a bit of a 'space' of their own, though the physical concept of space doesn't completely apply to the pocket dimension. It's difficult to describe, but picture being underwater, and then replace the water with multi-colored magic, and you get the idea. For a pure-magic spirit like a Theme, it's paradise.

Q: Can Error!Sans get into the Themes' dimension?

A: He cannot enter it any more than a regular monster can, since he is still tied by a certain amount of physical matter, but he can detect it, and he could tear it apart if he wanted to.

Q: Do the Themes have humanoid bodies or more monster-type outlines? Do they all look different?

A: In their base form, Themes are blurry white humanoid figures, like a human's shadow, except 3-D, white, and blurry. They can appear as transparent or opaque as they want, even disappearing completely if they want to. They're about a foot tall, though more powerful ones tend to be a little taller and less powerful ones tend to be a little shorter. If a Theme bonds with a place, (and I do intend to have a couple of place-related chapters eventually) its appearance really doesn't change, though it may take on a faint tint of magic if most of the area's monsters have similar magic. If a Theme bonds with a monster, it immediately takes on a faint tint of the color of that monster's magic. The color of the magic is defined first by if the monster has a SOUL mode associated with it, then by color of attacks. For example, Megalovania and Bonetrousle are blue (since Sans and Papyrus both have the blue SOUL mode), Spear of Justice is green (green SOUL mode), Here We Are and Glamour (Mettaton's Theme) are yellow, Dance (Muffet's Theme) is purple, etc. Heartache and Bergentrückung have a faint fiery color, since Toriel and Asgore use fire attacks. The color becomes brighter while the Theme is in battle and channeling magic, since the magic is what gives it the color, and it automatically appears solid.

After a while of being bonded, a Theme will start to take on the general shape of its Bonded monster. For example, you wouldn't be able to necessarily tell that Megalovania is Sans' Theme based on its shape, but if you saw it side-by-side with a non-bonded Theme, you would notice that Megalovania took on a somewhat stouter shape to look more like the blurry outline of Sans. They'll never gain or lose limbs, though, so Alphys' Theme doesn't gain a tail, Muffet's Theme doesn't gain two more sets of arms, Napstablook's Theme doesn't lose its legs, etc. The height also doesn't change, so Megalovania is still taller than Bonetrousle due to their power difference.

Q: Wait, wouldn't Death by Glamour have 12 melodies?

A: Pretty much, yeah, though I'm planning to fudge things a little. Live Report is just a slower version of a segment of Death Report, for example, so those can be one melody that the Theme chooses to play at different speeds. The same goes for Oh! One True Love, Oh! Dungeon, and For the Fans, and it's also (mostly) true for Hotel and Can You Really Call This a Hotel I Didn't Receive a Mint on My Pillow or Anything. Most Themes have at least a couple melodies. Spear of Justice has Danger Mystery, Undyne, Run!, NGAHHH!/Spear of Justice (since NGAHHH! is basically the looped beginning of Spear of Justice), But the Earth Refused to Die, and Battle Against a True Hero, so that makes six melodies. On the other hand, Bonetrousle only has two: NYEH HEH HEH and Bonetrousle, which could almost be one, but do have enough distinction that I'm counting them as two.

Q: Are these a group of one-shots or consecutive pieces of plot?

A: It's mostly a group of one-shots, but I do have an order in mind to a certain extent. I'm trying to build up the world in a way that makes sense and doesn't overwhelm you lovely readers with too much information in any one chapter, and I'm also trying to introduce the Themes in an order that makes sense so that I'm not introducing more than a few each chapter. There will be a certain aspect of chronology in some segments, I suppose, but not very much, especially considering that each chapter spans a large amount of time. The next chapter that I'm planning is actually going to be Fight, Hey!, and Dance, (Ghost Fight, Dummy!, and Spider Dance) since I would have to explain at least a third of it for Mettaton's backstory anyway. It'll be a short chapter, though, and then I'll get right on to your favorite sexy rectangle. ;) (To be fair, I don't think any future chapters will be as long as this one.)

Q: Why are _ and _ so similar? (I've had a few questions along these lines)

A: Some Themes are "related," so to speak, and have similar melodies (I'll get into this more in the next chapter). Sometimes, Themes can slightly modify their melodies to align more with other Themes' melodies. Another reason is because any Theme can play any melody, even if it's not its own; however, it cannot use magic with a melody that does not belong to it. For example, when you leave Napstablook's house after selecting one of the Spooktunes, the song keeps playing. In my AU, this will be because Blooky's Theme will keep playing the song for you, assuming that you want to keep hearing it, because it has learned how to "play" it.

Q: Napstablook is the in-canon author of some of the game's tracks. Does that mean that they created some Themes?

A: Toby (A. K. A. the Annoying Dog) is the only one who makes new Themes, so in-game songs are just songs; however, Themes are drawn to music to a certain extent, so Napstablook is popular. Themes can also learn how to play any melody, as I mentioned in my answer above, so Blooky's Theme learns and plays anything that Blooky makes. I'll talk about this more in chapter 4.

As for submissions, I've received requests (besides a long, lovely list by temp0ral that I will get through in time) for Ghost Fight, Dummy!, and Death By Glamour, so I assure you that those will be coming very soon. Next chapter will feature a lovely dynamic trio of tunes, and the one after that will feature our favorite celebrity robot and his Theme, so look forward to that. This chapter is only coming first to set up more of the world-building about how Themes work and to follow up with Here I Am/Here We Are. I also got a request for "Megalo Strike Back and Chara," as they put it, so I'm assuming that they mean the alternate version of Megalovania that is associated with Gaster. I will have a chapter eventually starring Gaster's Theme, so that will come then. Another person asked what Megalovania's reaction to the timeline RESET would be. I may revisit Megalovania a bit later, after I've gotten through more of the Themes, but I want to remind everyone that Megalovania actually doesn't even remember RELOADS, and there's no in-game evidence that Sans actually remembers _RESETS_. He remembers when you die and come back (A. K. A. a RELOAD), and he knows about other timelines and versions of himself, but he doesn't seem to actually remember, and he knows that. (See the line: "Don't tell that to the other Sans-es." If he remembered after the RESET, it wouldn't matter whether or not Frisk told the other Sanses because they would already know.) This isn't very conclusive, I know, and I'm rather on the fence as to how much he remembers of RESETS. I personally tend to work off the theory that Sans does remember RESETS in most of my fanfics, including this one, but Megalovania won't remember anything, so it won't know about the RESETS unless Sans tells it about them.

 **I had initially been planning to hold a Q and A every few chapters, but this was so much fun, and answering these questions actually helped me with my world-building, so I'm going to keep this going for every chapter. Feel free to ask me anything, even if it's not directly related to the story. You can ask me about my opinions on theories or AUs, questions about my involvement with the fandom in general, or whatever else you think of, and I would love to start conversations with each of you. You can also request songs like usual, though bear in mind that I have the next two chapters planned already.**

 **As you can probably tell, I do not post consistently. A lot of this is due to a sort of writer's block that I get when I'm insecure about the direction the story is going or when I know exactly what I want to happen, but I don't know how to get it there. I think that if I had a beta reader/story consultant whom I could talk to about the chapters and send the chapters as I write them for feedback whenever I get stuck, it would be a huge help. Mainly, I'd like someone who is good with characterization, since that's not always my strong point, and who would be willing to help me write difficult scenes, especially fight scenes, though I also struggle with other kinds of intense scenes. Help with those in general would be much appreciated. I also write (and get stuck on) other fanfictions that I haven't been posting, and it would be great (though not necessary) if said person would be open to working with me on those, too. If you're interested, please let me know in your review/comment or PM me, and we can talk about it. Thank you!**


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